Help me replace a Lenovo X series

My x201 has issues. The big issue is IBM says I damaged it when I didn't. In fact they fixed this problem under warranty before, only not very well apparently, now the same problem, I did it. Anyway, I've had Thinkpads, A21p, T41, X40, X61, X200 and X201 and until the 201 they've been great. Well built, decently spiffy, and the warranty was amazing. Now the quality has dropped and the warranty is bs like everyone else, so I'm done with Lenovo.

So I need a new laptop. It needs to be durable, not Pana toughbook but decent, as in cooling fans, screen hinges etc don't go bad after a few months. It needs to be small and light, it needs to be ok fast not bleeding edge, it needs to be Windows, I'd prefer 7, it needs great battery life.

Despite what a lot of people say, I've had good value out of Dell's Vostro line. I had a 3350, and now have a v131. Bother are/were good machines.

I only abandoned the 3350 due to the retarded ATI/Intel dual GPU thing which didn't work for shit. I'm much happier with the v131. I'm seeing up to 8 hours from a single charge on the bigger 6-cell battery, and it's running an i5.

Basically if you want a hearty laptop today you get two choices: HP's premium elitebooks, which offer the best business class hardware and decent support or Dell's flagging Latitude/Precision lineup, which offer slightly less polish on the hardware with better service. Either one configured to modern specs with a 3-4 year pro plan is going to run you an arm and a leg plus the rather troublesome uncertainty of being hitched to Dell/HPs near-future (ie. two companies that are struggling with their transitional business model). As you rightly note, Lenovo is now out of the running. Despite the fact that many die-hard thinkpad fans continue to flog their age-old record (which was fantastic 5-10 years ago). They could come roaring back to prominence and Dell might simply fold under pressure, but based entirely on what we do know (rather than pure speculation), it's a fools errand to invest a significant amount of cash into a lenovo product and long-term support plan IMHO.

Personally, I would save the cash, buy a latitude or elitebook off-lease, and tread water until the new laptop market looks stronger for long-term investment.

I always put my laptop on the ground on its side. I started doing this after my A21p burned up sitting flat on carpet. The way I set it it has maximum space for cooling. The case is cracked by the power plug. The only "stress" the laptop has seen is me picking it up with one hand holding it at the corner and back. The power plug is loose. They "fixed" that stuff before, but I think they really just screwed it together good, maybe with a drop of glue. It recracked a few weeks later. The problem was I was traveling for many months at the time.The keyboard light doesn't work unless I squeeze the bezel. They "fixed" that before, and at that time the webcam was also not working. Again whatever they did worked for a few weeks. I think the X201 is just a dud design. Hell they also fixed a cooling fan, that is at least now still working.

The big worry now is as I'm typing, the screen is starting to flicker. Tha google says that's a sign of motherboard cracked or something coming unsoldered on the board.

They've told me they have to charge me to fix the case because I damaged it. No I didn't. Picking the laptop up a few hundred times is hardly extreme use. Not sure what of the other stuff they're going to fix or not. Besides they already screwed me on an extended warranty, so I'm really just done with them. If I got paid minimum wage for the amount of time I've been in chat or on hold or responding to them I could buy a reeal nice laptop.

The great warranty was my main reason for sticking with Thinkpads after Lenovo bought them. Now that reason is gone.

As far as quality declining, just from my own use they seem more and more fragile. My A21P did a header off the back of a couch onto concrete, broke one of the laptop hinges but that was it. That was back when hard drives were a lot more fragile and before they had the sensor that locked it up when it got upside down or all floaty, lol.

This thing slid out of a car seat less than foot to the ground, the corner winds up with a hunk gouged out of it that I had to snip off because it was so sharp and barbed. And no that wasn't what broke the case or the light or camera, they were already screwed up.

I don't think I'm particularly tough on laptops. They spend about 1/2 their time on the road with me, so in a backpack or in a hotel. The other half at home plugged in beside the couch.

Better make sure you get some kind of Accidental Damage warranty. No manufacture covers the kind of damage you describe. No Dell, not HP, not Lenovo, not Asus, & not Apple. Nor anyone else I have worked with. The exception may be Panasonics Toughbooks, but I have never had to work on one of those while it was in warranty.

Generally as a authorized service provider any cracked case is considered Customer Induced Damage (CID), and can not be repaired under the normal warranty. Unless it can be demonstrated that the failed part had nothing to do with the CID. The exact details vary from manufacture to manufacture and even within model lines (consumer grade stuff is the least forgiving). For example keys popped off the keyboard is generally not considered to be related to a wifi cards failure. However corrosion inside the case even if not on the part in question generally is considered related. Without seeing you particular unit I could not begin to guess what exactly they determined. However, cracking around the power cable socket is 9 times out of 10 considered CID automatically, and will require specific authorization from the warranty escalation team for repair under the warranty.

Something to keep in mind. Don't put your laptop on is side. get a chillmat , a hardback book , or some-such thing to keep it off the carpet. Putting it on its side puts stress on whatever ports are on that side. Even worse if you have anything plugged into them like a power cable or USB dongle.

Anyway good luck finding a replacement you are happy with. Look into the HP Pro-books as well. Some of them are built like a tank! metal plating, extra bracing inside the case to prevent flexing, ect... The 4440s that I have at home is built way better than the T440s that my sister has. It is also a lot easier to work on. Less than 2 minuets to upgrade the memory vs about 5 for the Thinkpad.

Update, got my x201 back today from IBM warranty. They didn't fix anything. I assumed they had already fixed everything but the cracked case, and just wanted money for that. Nope, didn't fix the keyboard light. Not sure about the keys, power plug is still loose. Again for the thinkpad lovers, power plug and the light were bad before, they fixed it, and it broke again.

I also refuse to buy into this notion that I need to not pick a laptop up by its side, that that constitutes abuse on my part. Good lord. Especially a lightweight pad, if it can't handle that then it's never going to make it on the road. I have an X series so I can save space and weight in my travel gear. Now I need a book or cool pad to go along with it? No.

Maybe I'm not explaining this well. On the right side, there's nothing, a USB port, sound in and out but I'm not using any of it. On the left side is the power plug and the cooling fan outlet. Cooling fan inlets are on the bottom.So I set it on the right side, no ports are damaged or stressed doing this. Oh I guess that heavy weight power cord is putting huge stresses on that power plug. Cough, sarcasm, cough. I could see if I ever tripped over it and yanked it halfway across the room, but that hasn't happened.

Thanks for everyone's ideas on sturdy, small, powerful, laptops. I didn't even want to get into what Tuxberg mentioned, that Dell is up for sale and it's future not at all clear, same with HP. None of these folks are making any money at this stuff and would like to offload this part of their biz.

Even despite this I almost bought a DELL XPS14 today. The deal sites had an I7 at a great price, but it weighed 4.something pounds. Also the reviews were decidely meh on it.

An XPS14 would be a significant downgrade in durability, but if you can get it at a steal, by all means go for it. A few friends I have manage to destroy whatever laptop they have within 3 years, be it a cheap plastic $388 piece of junk from Best Buy or a Thinkpad/Elitebook/Latitude E6xx0-series, so they basically just resigned themselves to replacing $400 laptops every other year as opposed to trying to nurse 3 years out of a $800 laptop...

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, maybe with a drop of glue. It recracked a few weeks later. The problem was I was traveling for many months at the time.

Dang-- had you gotten it fixed again promptly, they probably would've been obligated to fix that under the original warranty incident, rather than as a separate warranty support call. Might not matter to you in the end result, but might have created more of an issue on Lenovo's internal support team for sloppy work.

Basically if you want a hearty laptop today you get two choices: HP's premium elitebooks, which offer the best business class hardware and decent support...

Every time I see someone recommend EliteBooks, I tell my story with them. Short story: US tech support that lies to you to try to avoid supporting the computer, techs don't show up, hardware/driver hell (failure-prone and stuck with ancient drivers), and absolute shit standard displays. I'm still working with my company with their issues and I'm hoping we'll migrate away from them.

Every time I see someone recommend EliteBooks, I tell my story with them. Short story: US tech support that lies to you to try to avoid supporting the computer, techs don't show up, hardware/driver hell (failure-prone and stuck with ancient drivers), and absolute shit standard displays. I'm still working with my company with their issues and I'm hoping we'll migrate away from them.

Fair critique. I don't have much experience with their support, though I will say my elitebook is now close to the two year mark without a tick and I haven't done more than clean it of dust a few times. Conversely, my last thinkpad was a quality control nightmare, as were many of the ones that arrived at work this year.

Not sure what i'll do if the elitebooks tank along with the rest, but I have been meaning to patron one of the linux-based companies for a few years now. Perhaps its time to stop feeding the corporate incompetents.

Everyone produces lemons. If you avoid every OEM who's produced a lemon in the past few years, you'd have exactly no one left to buy from.

We support extensive Dell, HP, and Lenovo laptops for customers here, and are sufficiently happy with all of them. We have had spikes in failure rates (such as Lenovo keyboards a generation or so ago, Dell Latitude E6x000's with the BIOS thermal issue three generations ago, etc.), some Dell Latitude D620's that were truly lemons, but nothing that particularly discourages us from any brand at the moment.

Biggest thing I can say before getting too hung up on brand or make/model is to try the systems yourself before you buy. Toshiba for a long time couldn't do a touchpad to save their lives, but that may have changed. The latest Dell Inspiron consumer-grade almost-an-ultrabook has a crappy touchpad and a flexy as heck keyboard, yet some models in some lineups are going to be just fine even if all their brethen are crap.

Might be worth checking over on the thinkpads.com forums for similar stories. Nearly all the problems you describe are parts soldered on the motherboard, except the keys and the ribbon cable for the LCD, and the light, which may just be loose. If they initially did a half ass job re-soldering the power connector, it would loosen again with regular use.

Question: Do you ever leave the power cord connected to the laptop when you put it in it's bag? If you do, that damage is all on you. It only takes a very small amount of strain to loosen that up on most laptops.

Also, what do you carry it in when traveling? If your bag gets bounced around and isn't sufficiently padded, that could knock all manner of things loose.

I've not upgraded past the X200 because the resolution on the screen offerings on the current line are frankly pathetic and I don't want to have to do a screen swap right off the bat.